Clicking the image might broaden your horizon.
There's a tag which, if added, would give away where this puzzle leads
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1$\begingroup$ steganography not needed? $\endgroup$– boboquackMay 11, 2017 at 9:17
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7$\begingroup$ +1 for the hilarious image. I'm intrigued... No idea what to do but... intrigued $\endgroup$– stack readerMay 11, 2017 at 9:49
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$\begingroup$ Is it a painting? $\endgroup$– lois6bMay 11, 2017 at 11:57
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2$\begingroup$ Turn it sideways and everything is a bunch of text characters. $\endgroup$– user34009May 11, 2017 at 18:59
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$\begingroup$ @pie314271 maybe some kind of esoteric programming language :O. $\endgroup$– stack readerMay 12, 2017 at 4:29
2 Answers
Following a couple hints, we find:
This is from taking the letters in the original image that stand out,
from left to right, as an imgur hash: Ooo0r
(and also indicates the 'missing tag' is probably imgur-maze).
Transcription:Wfno htnf, ary outv vsqvff wlj pvbcpj! Npy js gadm dri tfno iaesarrj :)
This may seem difficult but it sure isn't. Sometimes what you're looking for is right under your nose.
The next step is obvious ...
Decrypt the encrypted text.
The hint in the image that what we're looking for is right under our nose should suggest the keyboard, and did; butkeyboard
,keys
, and a few other things didn't work. I also triedmouth
andlips
andmustache
and the like, similarly with no results.
It turns out that the color of the blue block under the word "nose" in the image is actually hex #abcdef - which, like your keyboard, has the letters of the alphabet in it. @TechIdiot found the key "abcdef" and, at some prompting from OP in The Sphinx's Lair that blind guessing (or brute-forcing) the key wasn't needed, spotted the #abcdef color in the image.
With the key in hand, we can now decrypt the message:
Well done, you just solved the puzzle! Now go back and tell everyone :)
So - Hey everyone, I have just solved the puzzle!
is it
a bad pun of "stick-up"?
it is simple but we were told
to not overthink it
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$\begingroup$ Possibly, but I think there's a significance to the Stick family as it appears to be mom (long hair), dad (mustache), and twin children (shorter). $\endgroup$– ForkliftMay 15, 2017 at 19:14
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